Judge warns man who uploaded girls’ Facebook photos to porn site

A judge warned a 22-year-old Shannon man who uploaded 19 girls' Facebook profile pictures to a pornographic site that he faces jail if he does comply with the directions of the court.

At Ennis District Court on Wednesday, judge Patrick Durcan told Evan Meehan "the reality is that there are people out there who you hurt and who you hurt seriously".

The judge said Mr Meehan must receive professional assistance for issues he has to deal with.

Addressing Mr Meehan, the judge said: “I am putting you on a particular course of action. I want to see that it is complied with and complied with seriously. If it is not, I will have no hesitation in imposing a prison sentence.”

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Mr Meehan of Dernish Lawn, Shannon pleaded guilty to uploading 30 photos of local teenage girls to a pornographic site between October 2013 to the end of June 2014.

The 30 charges relate to 19 girls with 17 having Shannon addresses with two other girls living in the nearby villages of Sixmilebridge and Newmarket-on-Fergus.

All of the girls were Facebook friends of Mr Meehan while most went to the same secondary school in Shannon as him.

The offences took place during a period when Mr Meehan was aged 19 and 20.

The offences came to light after a number of girls presented themselves to Shannon Garda station on June 30th, 2014.

Insp Tom Kennedy told the court the girls were very distressed and upset when they found out what had happened.

Insp Kennedy said: “Mr Meehan was identified as the person responsible. He was very co-operative with the Gardai and took the photos off the system when he was asked to and obviously no further deviation has occurred.”

Mr Meehan’s solicitor Stiofán Fitzpatrick said: “Mr Meehan was 19 at the time of the offences. He was someone who wasn’t extroverted.

Mr Fitzpatrick said that Mr Meehan has taken moves to address the underlying issues "that caused him to do something so foolish and so stupid".

Mr Meehan has the full support of his family and was attending counselling, the court was told.

The judge said there were issues that Mr Meehan hadto deal with.

He adjourned the case for three months until May 3rd to allow professional intervention take place.

The judge said he would like victim impact statements from the injured parties before the court on that date.